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How To: Tap Your Small Business’ Social Networks to Find Top-Notch Talent

As a small business owner or entrepreneur of a new start-up, finding the right talent to bring your vision alive can be a challenge. While it may seem easy with an unemployment rate at a near all-time high, filling the gaps with the most qualified and talented candidates can pose as a challenge to even some of the best human resource departments.

Don’t worry though; you have the largest pool of potential job candidates right at your fingertips. Thanks to the millions of people flocking to such social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, social media has become a major recruiting tool to finding top-notch talent for your small business. With a little help, you’ll be finding some of the best talent. Here’s how.

Use LinkedIn

Probably the most obvious of all social networks is LinkedIn. As the world’s largest business social network, LinkedIn allows you to post job listings and easily search for top talent with LinkedIn Talent Advantage. This will cost some money, but if you’re in need of talent, it can be an extremely helpful tool. However, there is another method (which is more cost effective).

Thanks to LinkedIn groups, you can hone in on a specific niche and solicit talent. For example, if you are in need of a web programmer, why not search for the most active web programming groups and publicly announce your job opening there? Better yet, mention you are in need of a web programmer on your company’s page in the form of a status update. Those who are already connected to your page will see the update and will be able to notify their friend who just happens to be a web programmer.

Once you’ve found a few candidates, be sure to take the time to check out their profiles. Do they have recommendations? Is there a profile picture? Are they active in relative groups? Do they have any connections in common to receive outside referrals? These are all important when scouting for employees who will take your small business to the next level.

140 characters is not much space to work with. But if you get creative, Twitter can be a useful resource to attract top talent. One of the best practices for finding talent is through the use of hashtags. For more on hashtags, check out our Twitter Tactics for Small Business Owners.

When posting a job opening through your company twitter account, try to keep in mind popular and active job hashtags such as: #job, #hiring, #jobpost, or #recruiting. Thanks to Twitter search (search.twitter.com), there are hundreds of users searching these hashtags each day and are likely to stumble across your tweet, even if they are not one of your followers.

Use Facebook

When searching for top talent, one of the last places you’d expect to turn to is Facebook, but in fact, this social network can be a viable tool for recruiting. With over 800 million strong, chances of finding your next employee is highly likely.

We’re willing to bet your small business has a presence on Facebook with Facebook Pages for Business. This is a great place to post job opening information, as your fans are generally eager to share your information with their friends.

Another free tool is the Facebook Marketplace. While easy to post a job title, location, description, and company photo, it does have its limitations. Unlike Facebook Ads, the Marketplace does not allow you to target specific audience groups and really hone in on potential candidates.

If money isn’t a problem, then you can always post a job listing within Facebook Ads. Here you have much more control over details such as cost per click, target audience (age, interests, geographical location), and the decision to run your ad continuously or only for a pre-determined amount of time.

Remember there is no wrong way to go about recruiting talent through your social networks. The talent is out there, but it’s up to you to find it. So get creative and start tapping into your social networks to find your next employee.

Have you used social networks to recruit talent for your small business? Which network worked best for you? Share your success story with us!

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Brian Sutter is the Director of Marketing at Wasp, responsible for the development and execution of the company’s marketing strategy. His role encompasses brand management, direct and channel marketing, public relations, advertising, and social media. He also writes and speaks on topics related to helping small business owners grow their business and improve operational efficiency.